It's Food Day at the Wednesday NY Times

[lsanderson]

It's closing in on the end of the month. The plans for David and Laura Jean to go to Wiscon have fallen through... I got the single king room, not the double-double. Tomorrow, I have to pack for Wiscon. And caulk the shower.

And for Your Salad, Perhaps a Chilean Organic, 2004?

By FLORENCE FABRICANT

"JUST as wine now cuts a broad swath across the temperate regions of the globe, increasingly olive oil is following suit. In the way pinot noir and chardonnay have spread beyond Burgundy, countries that do not border the Mediterranean have jumped on the olive oil bandwagon. Suddenly, for them olive oil is becoming an important ingredient in local cuisines, and a worthwhile export."

An Overview of Some Worldly Oils

FLORENCE FABRICANT

"OLIVE oils are not shoes or even cheeses. A closet full of them, a different choice for each day of the week, for each dish on the menu, is clearly not necessary."

New Peas Find a New Friend for Spring

By MARK BITTMAN

"SOME spring clichés could stand to be shaken up a bit. For years, I've made a fresh pea purée spiked with mint. When I was a gardener, it was a celebration of the arrival of the freshest-tasting young vegetables and the sprightliest of herbs, a natural and classic combination."

Recipe: Swordfish with Gingered Pea Purée

Food Stuff

This made me think of Geri: "Place Mats to Make Any Meal a Garden Party

Until recently, Carole Shiber Designs has sold its flower- and leaf-shape place mats and coasters, which are made in Park Slope, Brooklyn, wholesale only. Now the company has opened a kiosk, the Tabletop Garden, at Grand Central Terminal, in the Graybar Passage.

The hand-painted linen flowers, rimmed with flexible wire, can be shaped to hold a bowl, a basket or a pile of chips. The green leaf mats in canvas and vinyl can sit under the flower patterns.

Prices are $7 to $40 for the mats, which can easily be wiped clean. Coasters, in sets of four, are $10 for vinyl, $20 for linen. Leaf-shape table runners are $40 to $75. The mats are also sold at Winkin' Dinks, 261 13th Street (Fifth Avenue), in Park Slope. Some of them are available at Bed, Bath & Beyond stores.
"

New Wine in Really Old Bottles

By ERIC ASIMOV

OSLAVIA, Italy

"JOSKO GRAVNER has thrown it all away, more than once. When he started making wine 30 years ago outside this small town in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy, he produced crisp, aromatic white wines in a popular style, using the latest technology.

But he was not satisfied making wines like everybody else. He replaced his temperature-controlled steel tanks with small barrels of French oak, and he won acclaim for white wines of uncommon richness. But not even that was sufficient,
and Mr. Gravner began to experiment with techniques considered radical by the winemaking establishment. The hazy, ciderish hue of the resulting white wines, so different from the usual clear yellow-gold, persuaded some that the wines were spoiled. But one taste showed they were fresh and alive, with a sheer, lip-smacking texture.

Was he happy? Please.

Rejecting the modern trappings of the cellar, Mr. Gravner has reached back 5,000 years. He now ferments his wines in huge terra-cotta amphorae that he lines with beeswax and buries in the earth up to their great, gaping lips. Ancient Greeks and Romans would be right at home with him, yet his 2001 wines, his first vintage from the amphorae, which he is planning to release in September, are more vivacious and idiosyncratic than ever."

Comments

[carbonel]

How are you getting to WisCon? I'm planning on driving up Friday morning, but might be interested in either a ride or a passenger.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Those placemats sound neat -- especially the linen flowers that can be formed to hold baskets and bowls. Better yet if the actually became the baskets. Still tempting, though. (Budget. Must remember budget. Okay. Safe now.)

Sorry that WisCon isn't working for David and Laura Jean after all. Hope you have a grand time there!